The Ripple Effect exists for the sole purpose of encouraging one another to make spending time seeking after God their first and most important priority of the day, every day.
Helping men seek, pursue, and rest in Christ through spiritual partnership.
The Point of it All
To become a person who loves God with all their heart, with all their mind, with all their soul, and with all their strength, as well as a person who loves others as much as themselves in the manner of the Good Samaritan.
Union with God.
To be one with our heavenly Father.
To seek God first in our lives above all else everyday.
Fill ourselves with God and the things of God day after day after day, crowding out all that is not God or of God.
Our Mission
Open the eyes of men to see their need to seek God first in their lives, show them how to do so, and partner them up to strengthen them to continue walking in it.
Help men out of a life of withdrawal, isolation, and scarcity and into a life of partnership, abundance, victory, and freedom.
Our Vision
The vision for each person in The Ripple Effect is to become a joy-filled follower of Jesus, confident in His love, care, presence, and guidance, free of all enslavements and distractions from God. To be a Spirit-led person who is at peace, living a life of victory via dependence on God. To one whose soul follows hard after God. (Psalm 63:8)
What, How, Why
What do we do?
- The Ripple Effect exists to specifically support the cultivation of your intimate relationship with Jesus of Nazareth, remind you of what Yahweh, the one true God, is really like according to Jesus, and to foster your participation in the power, guidance, and always-flowing goodness of the Holy Spirit.
- Help move each other on to God’s agenda, hear and discern the voice of God, and recognize Him at work in the ordinary and the mundane.
- Train ourselves in good and right thinking within the context of joyful relationships and a safe environment, consisting of tender responses to weakness.
- Encounter God both individually and together.
- Guide others to diligently seek God with all their heart, eliminating distractions, in order to live in every moment fully conscious of the presence of God.
How do we do what we do?
- Meet weekly, encountering God together around Scripture, prayer, reminders, teaching, and check-in.
- Talk daily to someone from the group in order to check-in, encourage, remind, and keep aware.
- Seek God first via the 7 rhythms of practicing God’s presence, Scripture meditation, heartfelt prayer, partnership, service, sharing, and rest.
Why do we do what we do?
- To seek God’s will and do it
- Peace
- Joy
- Shalom
- Freedom
- Liberation from the flesh
- Union with God
- Only satisfaction of the soul
- Maturity in Christ
- To be conformed to His image
- It’s worth it
- We were designed for it
- Abundant Life
- Greater capacity
Why did the Ripple Effect Ministry start?
Sociologists tell us that even the most introverted individual will influence ten thousand other people during their lifetime. Who we are matters!!!
We found that, like us, even professed Christians were having difficulty living into their full God-given potential. Even though many attend church and even small groups, they still lacked the encouragement and spiritual partnership they desired and needed to live well for God.
The Ripple Effect’s goal is to create groups and partnerships that provide the encouragement we need to “seek God at 1,000 mph” as we say. We encourage each other in good times and bad times to put God’s will first in our lives. According to God’s word, once we seek his will above our own, he will take it from there.
“The helper, the holy spirit, whom the father will send in my name, he will teach you all things…” John 14:26
This section regards specifically The Ripple Effect men’s groups as started in August 2012
Why do the people of Ripple Effect meet weekly?
We meet to encourage one another to seek God at a thousand miles per hour. The world has a way of stealing God’s truth from the front of our mind, and we begin to rely on our own wisdom and might. We meet to remind ourselves “not by my might but by the will of God…” -Zechariah 4:6
There are many ways we encourage each other:
• Teaching of God’s word in Scripture
• Proclaiming God’s Truth
• Sharing our victories
How do the people of Ripple Effect seek God?
We use a success model given to us in Scripture:
• Daily Prayer
• Daily Study of and meditation on Scripture
• Daily Partnership
Why do we focus on the action verb “seek”?
We believe Jesus is who he said He is; the very Son of God. Therefore, we believe what He says is true, and that His promises are real!
He promises us Joy and abundant life in him if we “seek” him first.
Matthew 6:33
“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given unto you.”
We believe that diligently seeking God will creates abundance, peace, and joy in our lives. As we abide in God’s will, our lives can be a benefit to others.
The role of the leaders of Ripple Effect groups
Leading a RE group is the easiest ministry we can think of. There are no special skills required. RE leaders are NOT responsible for the growth of others. They are responsible solely for preparing the teaching and proclaiming the truth: “Seek and you will find.” It is up to the people of Ripple Effect to seek daily. God is our true LEADER and will guide those of us who seek.
• RE Leader’s role is to proclaim truth
• RE People’s role is to “Seek” daily and obey what God asks of them
• God’s role in RE is to change our hearts and teach us what we need to know
Ripple Effect leaders also “keep the main thing the main thing” by keeping the discussions on track of our mission: encouraging each other to seek God.
The only qualifications for leading a RE group:
• Love for God
• Passion for people
• A teachable spirit
What if the discussion of a Ripple Effect group gets off track?
Often the people of Ripple effect will use the meeting time to “discuss” the short comings of others and how they are affecting their lives!
We refuse to give energy to that which we do not control.
When a brother gets stuck dwelling on their personal conflicts we need to stop and redirect them to our mission and God’s truth.
“Brother, we know this is a real problem and is affecting you negatively. Let’s put that aside for a minute and focus on what we can control. Let’s talk about you and your daily walk…where are you with God right now?” (Disciplines of seeking and abiding).
99 out of 100 times when we become consumed with our worldly conflicts we have turned our focus off God and onto ourselves! As we focus on ourselves, our problems seem bigger and more desperate than they are.
“What consumes our mind, Controls our life!” –Creed
When we REFOCUS on “seeking” God it may not change the people around us, but it changes us! It changes how we see the situation and our attitude toward it. Barriers become bridges, and obstacles become opportunities.
As a group we pray for heart change for the people involved and for the strength of our brother to seek God’s will for the situation.
What happens when people of the Ripple Effect refuse to “seek” or “partner”?
There will be some people that come to RE meetings that are not yet ready to commit to “seeking” God daily.
We are glad in the fact that they are here. Even though they are not yet “seeking”, something is drawing them to RE. We pray that through the teaching, proclaiming, and sharing that these brothers are moved to begin their personal daily “seeking” and partnering in daily calls.
Why would a confessed Christian NOT ‘’seek” to know his God through His word?
Simply, ignorance, weakness, or rebellion.
“Those who believe, obey. Only those that obey truly believe!”
Some that believe in Jesus do not know scripture well enough yet to understand that God is the answer to peace, joy and abundance in their daily lives. God is Active in the affairs of man!
Some of us know God is the key but need a constant reminder of this truth to motivate our daily “seeking”.
This is why we have teaching time. We learn about God through his word.
This is why we have time to proclaim Gods truth. “God’s word, spoken boldly, supernaturally penetrates the heart of men.” –Billy Graham
This is why we have sharing times. Changed lives are the undeniable evidence that God is at work and honors his promise: If we ‘’seek” him first, he will give us the desires of our heart!
What do we say to the people who say “I simply do not have time to read the Bible or study God’s word”!
When someone says “I do not have time…” what they are really saying is “I value something else more…” Simply fill in the blank below:
“______________ is more important to me than spending time with my God and Savior”.
It sounds ridiculous because it is. If God is the source of abundant life, then the time we spend with Him will be returned a hundred fold.
What advice do we give those suffering in bad circumstances?
“My girlfriend, my wife, my boss, etc.” We cannot give life advice to anyone. We do NOT know what we don’t know and we do not know the hearts of all involved. What we can do is point our brother to the One who does know the hearts of everyone involved. Our advice is draw close to God. “Seek” God and he will make your path clear.
Why don’t we advocate meeting at bars?
Although we do not believe having a beer is a sin, we do know many of our brothers struggle with addictive personalities.
We will never meet in the name of Christ while putting a brother’s welfare in jeopardy.
What is the bottom line?
The bottom line is that we can’t fix anyone. Beyond a helping hand we cannot change peoples circumstances. We do what we can…we encourage each other with God’s truth and pray for each other.
Everyone must make their own decision. Everyone is responsible for their own actions.
Vison, Decision, Action
Vision- a clear picture of the end goal and a clear path of how to get there.
Our vision is to seek and submit to God’s will in our life. We know that God is infinitely good and knows what He is doing. God gives His best to those that leave the decision to Him.
We know the path to God’s will is abiding in him and hungrily “seeking” him in prayer, in his word, and in his people.
Decision-living into this vision requires individual decision and commitment to “seek” God.
Action- knowing what to do and why to do it is a good start but knowledge without action is death. Nothing great ever just happens. No one ever just happens to learn to play the piano. To find you must “seek”. You must take action steps. To understand the action verb “seek” we use the child’s game of hide and seek. If you count to ten, then just stand there still, you will never find anyone!
Abundance versus Scarcity
It’s hard to be a benefit to anyone else if you are just getting by yourself. When you abide in God and ‘’seek” His will you will live in spiritual abundance. It’s in our abundance that we flow over into others.
Scarcity: Most people today are drowning. Doing all they can to keep their head above water. They cannot help others because they can barely keep themselves afloat.
Abundance: People living in abundance are like people on a boat floating through the waters filled with people drowning. Since they are secure on the boat they can reach down and pull the drowning aboard. In turn, the newly saved swimmer can reach down and grab another…and so on and so on and so on!
Abiding in God is the key to abundant life. An abundant life is the key to being a real benefit to others! John 15:1-17